What is a true friend? Well the dictionary defines a friend as, “A person you know well and regard with affection and trust.” For myself, few people embody a true friend as well as my buddy Lonnie Morris a Physical Education teacher at Coventry’s Knotty Oak Middle School..
I met Lonnie the summer before my senior year of high school in 1990. He was working on a Del’s Lemonade truck in the parking lot of Roche’s Market. My friend John Gallo and I were on the way back from the gym and John decided to stop and talk to Lonnie. The two friends talked a few minutes about their old high school football rivalry, but throughout their conversation I could see Lonnie leaning over to get a better look at me in John’s truck. He finally asked John who I was and John just said he is a friend that I lift weights with. Lonnie said hi to me and then we were on our way.
A few months later John enlisted in the Marines and I was having trouble getting personal assistants so after searching high and low Lonnie popped into my mind. I called John’s mother and asked her for Lonnie’s phone number. The next day my grandmother called Lonnie’s house and we made plans for him to come over and meet me.
It was a Sunday night and Lonnie came over to get to know me. He was only there for a few minutes, but we hit it off immediately and I knew he would be perfect for the job. He worked for me for about five years. In that time, Lonnie mastered almost everything about my many needs and myself. He went away with me on competitions, vacations, and even on my college orientation. After he graduated from Rhode Island College it was time for Lonnie to move on so he quit the job, but by that time we had developed a friendship that will last a lifetime.
Before Lonnie finished working with me he trained one of his younger teammates on the Wrestling team at Rhode Island College to take over for him. He also called on a regular basis to see how it was working out or just to get together.
As the years went by we both got busy and drifted apart but whenever something important was going on we always made time for the other. Recently I was in quite a bind when both of my male assistants had to leave suddenly, leaving me no way to train or even get out of the house. One call to Lonnie and my problems were solved. Currently Lonnie is the head wrestling coach at Johnson and Wales University and for the past five or six years he has provided me with at least two-thirds of my personal care staff in that period of time Lonnie is one of the few people that truly realize that my quality of life is directly effected by the type of aides I am able to hire.
Although we don’t get together as much as we both would like and we joke around a lot, I truly feel that he is one of my best friends and I would like to thank him for everything he has done for me over the years, although he will never convince me to be a Red Sox fan!
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